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P3D v5 Sloped Airport Taxiway Creation

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245
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unitedstates
I just google it. It should be easy to access on the Internet.
Airnav.com Should help you a lot as well.
You are looking for the AERODROME CHART. What airport are you thinking of?

The chart should look something like the one below.
View attachment 57373
Thank you. I use those charts/diagrams always in my P3dv4 and backwards but paid no attention to the ELEV information...I will NOW with P3Dv5. Thank you again.
 

scruffyduck

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unitedkingdom
Perfect both way, if it's possible, please consider inserting a key to show/hide such properties in all nodes.
Thanks!

I am doing that - a keyboard shortcut to show/hide the altitudes - they will only be visible in any case for airports with the sloped property
 
Messages
63
Country
spain
I've made some trial as well on sloped airport.
On a large airport, slope conversion is a hudge manual work to adjust everything to suit a local mesh.

So I'm thinking about a workflow I'm currently experiment:
  • Import local airport mesh in QGIS
  • Export an elevation profil points list (CSV format) computed from a "digitized line" manually drawn along runways & taxiways [QGIS qProf plugin]
  • Open original BGL airport in ADE, convert to sloped property, export its XML
  • Process both XML and CSV to adjust automatically altitudes to all TaxiPoint from nearest mesh point available (I have programmed yesterday a small utility to do this)
  • Re-import the new XML in ADE, switch runway taxilink to FLATTEN and compile
The principle works fine, but my current problem is that I have no access to the 4.75 meter local mesh of the scenery, but only the standard 38 meters, so it's somehow innacurate on some parts.
I tried to use bgldec to extract the 4.75 m mesh, but I have no idea on how to import BMP's in QGIS :rolleyes:

Then there is the Appron problem as they have only a single altitude value (centered ?) and cannot fit mesh profile.

@scruffyduck : would it be possible to add a mouse "lasso" type selection tool in ADE? It would be a great help :)

I am working on something similar. This is what I am working on:
  • Obtained a local MDT02 mesh for the Airport area, convert to GeoTiff and then to BGL
  • Get XML from ADE
  • With python, parse XML coordinates and call Gdal library to obtain elevations from GeoTiff
Still testing, but looking good so far.
 
Messages
118
Country
france
Jon, when I convert a classic airport to a sloped one, the taxisign properties are not set to AGL.
Would it be possible to set them automatically ?
Also when I try to do this using the list (multi-selection), it does not switch the AGL properties
 
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scruffyduck

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unitedkingdom
Ooops there is a bug in multi edit for taxi signs. I will add it to the list to get it fixed and also look at the other point

EDIT Multi edit bug fixed in next update
 
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unitedstates
Just saying thanks for addressing the sloped runway issue for P3Dv5. I'm looking forward to designing a new KSKX Taos, NM which is badly represented in all flight sims.
 
Messages
118
Country
france
Thanks Jon.
I have a newbie question sorry: I'm unable to find a way to change an apron drawing layer, is it possible?
 

tgibson

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us-california
No there isn't, AFAIK. Why do you want to do that? If some object is underneath, select it, right click, and choose Move Up or Move to Top. If that's not an option, then select the apron and press Shift O repeatedly and that will make it transparent so you can see underneath. Pressing O repeatedly will bring it back.

Hope this helps,
 

scruffyduck

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You can only change the drawing layer of an apron within the limits of how difference surfaces overlay each other and how the apron is drawn in relation to other elements like taxiways. Changing the drawing layer in ADE does not change anything in the sim. ADE tries to mimic what the sim drawing engine does but can't affect it.
 
Messages
63
Country
spain
Some additional testing from my side that hope helps someone around here ...

As previously stated, I started messing around with Sloped runways a week ago. My first objective was to be able to have the right altitudes on all objects/ POIs with an 'alt' attribute extracted from an XML exported airport from ADE. Mission accomplished, by generating an MDT02 (2 meter) mesh around my test Airport LETO (Torrejon Airbase), obtained a GeoTiff from it and matching ADE coordinates so to obtain elevation at every object/ POI... with a little help from python, I had my Airport in XML with correct altitudes matching the mesh's BGL.

Now, I am seeing that this is actually a lot more simple than I though and did not require so much "science" behind it. So here goes my tip ...

If you develop a high resolution mesh around your airport (like I did), all you have to do is set these two variables in each object/ POI within ADE:

  • FLATTEN: set to Flatten
  • SURFACEQUERY: set to None
If you do this, the Aprons, Runway, etc. will flatten the ground beneath so no unwanted distortions/ bumps will emerge; and with SurfaceQuery to 'None' these Objects/ POIs will leveled to ground and not depend on Taxi Point altitudes.

I know these have been probably said partially in other posts, and probably I did not fully understood, but believe me it seems a lot easier than I thought it would be.

Hope it helps.
 
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26
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italy
Some additional testing from my side that hope helps someone around here ...

As previously stated, I started messing around with Sloped runways a week ago. My first objective was to be able to have the right altitudes on all objects/ POIs with an 'alt' attribute extracted from an XML exported airport from ADE. Mission accomplished, by generating an MDT02 (2 meter) mesh around my test Airport LETO (Torrejon Airbase), obtained a GeoTiff from it and matching ADE coordinates so to obtain elevation at every object/ POI... with a little help from python, I had my Airport in XML with correct altitudes matching the mesh's BGL.

Now, I am seeing that this is actually a lot more simple than I though and did not require so much "science" behind it. So here goes my tip ...

If you develop a high resolution mesh around your airport (like I did), all you have to do is set these two variables in each object/ POI within ADE:

  • FLATTEN: set to Flatten
  • SURFACEQUERY: set to None
If you do this, the Aprons, Runway, etc. will flatten the ground beneath so no unwanted distortions/ bumps will emerge; and with SurfaceQuery to 'None' these Objects/ POIs will leveled to ground and not depend on Taxi Point altitudes.

I know these have been probably said partially in other posts, and probably I did not fully understood, but believe me it seems a lot easier than I thought it would be.

Hope it helps.

Thanks for the explanation, can you confirm that aprons do not follow flatten, they instead have only a single altitude reference?
Thanks!
 
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63
Country
spain
Thanks for the explanation, can you confirm that aprons do not follow flatten, they instead have only a single altitude reference?
Thanks!

Sadly, yes I confirm Aprons do not follow flatten; still testing different options.

EDIT: Testing with ALT = 0 for Aprons and different options. Will get back to you on this.
 
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Messages
111
Country
southafrica
Sadly, yes I confirm Aprons do not follow flatten; still testing different options.

EDIT: Testing with ALT = 0 for Aprons and different options. Will get back to you on this.


I am trying experimenting with a combination of Taxiways and Aprons, and creating Meshes with with Hard surfaces to allow for the slopes. Have not gotten it to work, but I think this may be the solution.
 
Messages
118
Country
france
  • SURFACEQUERY: set to None

After many tests, I'm still unable to understand what this flag is doing.
Does someone can explain?

The SDK description is really not clear to me:

Specifies if the taxiway should or should not return a surface type and elevation "
 
Messages
118
Country
france
So much fun with sloped airport creation :) ,
Here is a shot of LFOH Le Havre Octeville in France prepared over a 4.75 meters mesh :

1588933744-lfoh-pisteslope.jpg
 
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